Social Media and Self-Harm

Is social media use to blame for a large growth in incidences of self-harm? That’s the conclusion some have come to, but there is no robust evidence that this is the case. In fact, some social media may even be good for teenagers.

The Times today reported that hospital admissions for girls who self-harmed had gone up from 7327 in 1997 to 13,463 last year. Interviewees quoted in the piece partly blamed social media for that increase. Jon Goldin at the Royal College of Psychiatrists suggested that the fear of missing out and comparing yourself with images online could be part of the problem.

But the evidence to support that claim is very uncertain. A study last year found a similar rise in self-harm among girls, especially between 2011 and 2014. However, the researchers said that part of the increase in recorded self-harming incidents is probably due to people being more willing to talk about it – perhaps due to there being less stigma.Nevertheless, the team suggested that self-harming itself is also likely to be on the rise, acknowledging that the role of social media in this trend is often discussed in the media.

“People see that unhappiness in teenagers and adolescents is going up, by some measures, and that the use of technologies is going up,” says Andrew Przybylski at the Oxford Internet Institute. “The inference that’s drawn is that A is a result of B.”

But that is difficult to support. Przybylski points out that the prevalence of other activities – such as smoking cannabis and drinking alcohol – have gone down over that period, yet we don’t immediately leap to the conclusion that social media is making young adults behave more healthily and use fewer drugs.

The other concern is that some of the best, most rigorous research into this area doesn’t support the idea that social media is to blame. Przybylski himself carried out a large study into screen use and young people’s mental well-being, and found that moderate screen use is actually correlated with a small positive effect. Extreme use is linked to a decline, but the effect was very small – it seemed to be less harmful for mental health than skipping breakfast.

While some studies have found a link between social media and suicide, Przybylski’s colleague Amy Orben has noted that the correlation with mental health issues is tiny. In one study, social media use explained only 0.36 per cent of a girl’s depressive symptoms. That figure is so low, it could just be statistical noise.

Techno-Science

Toxic subcultures certainly exist online, including ones that glorify self-harm and eating disorders. But the average user is unlikely to be inundated by messages from such communities, and it’s not clear whether these are enough to increase the incidence of self-harming. Instead, it could be that young women who self-harm gravitate to them.

Blaming “social media” in blanket terms, when social media is such a key part of young people’s lives, is unhelpful, says Przybylski: “It’s distracting us from more careful questions, about support and mental health services, and things that can actually make an impact.”

Exactly what is causing any increase in unhappiness is not clear. “Social media is one thing that’s changed, but so have a huge swathe of other things,” says Suzi Gage at the University of Liverpool, UK. “Austerity is a huge one to my mind. Pressure at school and pressure on getting to university, and having to pay for it – they’ve all changed in the last 10 years. Putting the blame on social media is massively premature.”